#WritersCoffeeClub Jul. 25 - Do you ever hinge plots on a misunderstanding?
Yes! The first 2 books of the big WIP hinge on misunderstandings, many of them intentionally created. What's a political story without subterfuge and misinformation? xD
In defense of misunderstanding as a plot device, speculation on a culture not my own
It seems fashionable in the Anglophone literary world to deprecate plots that depend on misunderstanding and I'm not sure why--aren't they a staple of white Anglo classics like the works of #Shakespeare and #JaneAusten? 🤔 I guess there are a ton of cases where the misunderstanding is kind of meh and written in for plot convenience more than anything intrinsic to the characters and the world, but like any other plot element it can be handled well or poorly.
Personally I love a compelling misunderstanding where misinterpretation and crossed signals arise out of circumstances central to the story like "civil blood mak[ing] civil hands unclean," (Romeo and Juliet) or because honest communication about subjects like romantic yearnings is so high-stakes it's basically impossible, especially for women (much of Jane Austen).
And maybe there's a tendency to kind of sneer at this because these stories took place in the Olden Days(TM) of whalebone corsets and slavery and people are supposed to be above all that now. The last time I checked misunderstanding didn't die out with the advent of industrialization, though, unlike passenger pigeons and dodos (too soon?). Despite the enlightenment and freedoms constantly touted to us, how much goes unspoken and undared, dropped, forgotten and (un)missed in the odd spaces that open up between our fragile forms? Which, and whose, silences and misapprehensions do the loadbearing work in our lives?
I think these questions of misunderstanding and miscommunication are worth exploring in any age, especially if books are optimized for exploring inner lives as seems to be another common consensus in Anglophone lit crowds. (Romance of the Three Kingdoms and Beowulf among others might disagree, but hey, they're old news and drawn from oral tradition so they get filed differently maybe? 🤷♀️)
re: In defense of misunderstanding as a plot device, speculation on a culture not my own
@ljwrites The vast majority of 'misunderstanding' books I've read have been romances where the entire plot hinged on an unnecessary misunderstanding that could have been resolved if the two MCs had one single honest conversation with each other.
If your entire plotline can go up in smoke in a single conversation, the misunderstanding starts to feel contrived for the sake of having a story at all.
I've read books where misunderstanding was a major part of the plot and it worked -- but they've been few and far between.
I think part of it is that many romance authors have bought the 'plot must center around conflict' kool-aid but don't know how to write conflict into an otherwise healthy relationship. So they make it unhealthy.
re: In defense of misunderstanding as a plot device, speculation on a culture not my own
@ljwrites @JessMahler semi relatedly, in that this is often my complaint about misunderstanding plots (though it can also come up in other situations) is i really don’t particularly enjoy stories where the expectation is a HEA/HFN and yet one is left with the ominous certainty that while this *particular* conflict has been resolved, a near identical one is likely to pop up five minutes from now because no one’s bothered learning anything from the first one
this is perhaps why i love pride and prejudice despite generally considering myself to dislike misunderstanding plots—resolving the misunderstandings doesn’t actually solve anything! genuine efforts to improve their own characters that are driven by resolving those misunderstandings is what actually drives the resolution.
re: In defense of misunderstanding as a plot device, speculation on a culture not my own
@ljwrites @Satsuma @JessMahler@indiepocalypse.social yes!
Pride and Prejudice has the main characters (especially Darcy) spend plenty of time reflecting on where they went wrong and working to do better. It makes the whole book genuine and about consideration and change, not shallow and thoughtless.
re: In defense of misunderstanding as a plot device, speculation on a culture not my own
@Satsuma @JessMahler this reminds me of someone pointing out that apology without change is just manipulation. Okay miunderstanding solved, hurray, but what action did they actually take to make sure it doesn't happen again? It leaves a bad taste in the mouth while we're told absolutely nothing is wrong.